


I feel the burning (now's the time)

by orphan_account



Category: Cravity (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Not Beta Read, Soulmates, hamlem if you squint, kinda slow burn?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: "I mean, he admitted that saying ‘ow, what the fuck?!’ right before a school assembly began probably wasn’t the best reaction, and by the looks people were giving him, he concluded that he was absolutely right with his assumption."Or a soulmate AU in which all people are born with a counter on their left palm that depicts how many times you pass your soulmate. Every time you pass them, your hand will burn soon after, as a warning that your soulmate was near.
Relationships: Park Serim/Seo Woobin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	I feel the burning (now's the time)

Serim first wondered what the two black zeros on his left hand were at the young age of 5 years old.

Before that, he hadn’t given much thought to them at all, after all, every single kid from his class had a number on their palm too. His curiosity began when his best friend, Allen, came to class suddenly sporting a number one on his palm, instead of the usual zero. When Serim asked how it changed, Allen just shrugged, and said he didn’t know, but that it hurt a lot.

On the walk home from class, holding both his mom and dad’s hands, Serim asked what the numbers meant.

“You see, you know how mommy and daddy both have the same numbers, right?” His mother started, and Serim nodded enthusiastically. “Well, there’s this thing called soulmates, it means that those two people are meant to be happy together, and everytime you pass your soulmate the number changes. Once you kiss your soulmate for the first time, the counter will stop and it’ll stay like that forever, that’s how you know you’ve met your soulmate.”

“Ew, kisses are gross, I don’t wanna get cooties…” Serim responded, his face showing disgust. His parents laughed, knowing his opinion would change sooner or later.

* * *

Woobin never really cared about the numbers on his palm. If you asked him, soulmates were overrated, but the reason he thought that was probably because he was 10 and one of the only few people whose display still showed a simple zero.

All of his friends already had their counters start, and as far as he knew everyone in his class too. Hell, he even knew a pair of soulmates, although they hadn’t figured it out yet, their counters always went up on unison, and Woobin considered himself a lot of things, but dumb wasn’t one of them.

Sometimes, he thought about it deeply, at least as deep as a 10 year old could. Did he really not care about soulmates, or was he just hiding the fact that he was jealous about his counter not activating yet? Whenever these thoughts invaded his mind, he would just brush them off.

Yeah, he didn’t need a soulmate as long as he had his friends.

* * *

The first burn came when Serim was 13 years old.

If you asked him if he was surprised that he got it that exact day, he honestly wasn’t, after all, it happened in one of the most common scenarios ever, that being his first day of Middle School. He was alongside his friends from elementary school, Allen and Jungmo, looking for three seats so they could sit together for the presentation. 

He knew it was supposed to burn, but damn, that hurt. People that described the feeling to him were underestimating the pain way too much. He couldn’t hide the discomfort from his face when it happened, but as soon as he looked at his palm, displaying a one, he couldn’t hide his smile no matter how much he tried. Of course, his friends noticed, and when they saw his palm, they knew the sudden happiness had a source.

“Okay but why the heck does it hurt so much? And why didn’t you guys warn me?” Serim whispered. The presentation assembly already begun, but he honestly didn’t really care about it. 

“You’ll get used to it by the time your counter is in the 20s, it’s not that bad.” Said Allen, and Jungmo added, “Yeah, and by the time you get to 100s you won’t even feel it.”

Great, he was in for a long ride. At least his soulmate was very close, and that brought a smile to his face.

* * *

Woobin would forever remember the time he got the ‘first burn’, as people called it, that’s for sure. And he knew Wonjin would tease him for it for the rest of his life. Hell, he was already texting Hyeongjun and Seongmin to tell them the story, even though the youngest of their group were probably in class. 

I mean, he admitted that saying ‘ow, what the fuck?!’ right before a school assembly began probably wasn’t the best reaction, and by the looks people were giving him, he concluded that he was absolutely right with his assumption.

Wonjin, meanwhile, struggled to stop giggling. “I-I don’t know what I expected…” He said between laughs. “B-but I can tell you it was definitely not that.”

Woobin was quick to retort, saying how he didn’t expect the pain. “Well yeah, the first one is always the worst one, you’ll get used to it.”

“How do you even remember when you got your first burn, you were like a fetus!”

“I was 5 years old, excuse you, which is a very non fetus age.”

“Whatever, whatever, you’re still a fetus.”

“Who cares about that? Shouldn’t you be happy? Your soulmate is in the same school!” Woobin knew Wonjin was right, but he still had a weird feeling about it. Well, he’ll just take whatever comes his way.

* * *

The second burn arrived way quicker than both of them expected. Whether it was lucky or not, the school had a policy that forced all students to cover their counters, and to do that, they used pain-relieving gloves. They detected whenever the number went up and applied some sort of cooling to it.

Woobin definitely appreciated the cooling, but it didn’t stop him from letting go of his backpack when the burning came for the second time in just one day. He glared at Wonjin across the classroom, as if he was trying to say ‘this shit still hurts’, but his friend just laughed it off.

Meanwhile, Serim was better at hiding the pain, but he couldn’t help but flinch at the surprise of his counter activating for the second time in such a short amount of time. When class started, he wrote a note and, as he was about to throw it to where Allen and Jungmo were, his seatmate tapped his back.

“Hey, maybe that’s not a good idea.” He started. “The teacher’s looking right at us.”

“Thanks man, you kinda saved me right there. I’m Serim, by the way.” He introduced himself to his seatmate.

“I’m Woobin, guess we’ll be classmates for three years, so I hope we’ll get along.”

* * *

Three years flew by, and to say Serim and Woobin got along was definitely an understatement. All throughout middle school they had become best friends. You would barely see Serim and not Woobin, or viceversa. Hell, even their friend groups fused, especially during their second year, when their youngest friends all came to the same school.

It wasn’t much later when Hyeongjun and Wonjin finally decided to stop being idiots and admit that they were soulmates, and soon after they started dating. Woobin loved giving himself credit for being the first one to notice.

Another thing he couldn’t stop noticing was his rising counter, well over a thousand now. People didn’t lie when they say you got used to it, but Woobin would wear his glove whenever he could, more for the pain relief rather than for covering the counter itself.

“Rubyyyyy” Woobin snapped out of his trance when Serim called his nickname. “Sorry, sorry, what were you guys talking about?”

“High schools, obviously, we all gotta go to the same one.” Said Jungmo. “I think we should just stay in Starship’s high school department, it’s way easier and we won’t have to buy new uniforms or anything like that.” Added Allen, and they all nodded in agreement.

A bit later, Serim and Woobin were walking home together, when the former decided to ask why he was so spaced out.

“Just, thinking, y’know. Mainly about soulmates. Like, you guys mentioned high schools, and one of the reasons I wanna stay is because I know my soulmate is here. I got my first burn back on the first year assembly, I actually said ‘ow, what the actual fuck?!’ quite loudly, dunno if you heard me back then.”

Serim was surprised that Woobin was letting all of that out. Yeah, they were really close friends, but the topic of soulmates was one that they never actually touched, for unknown reasons.

“Huh, that’s funny, I actually got my first burn on the first year assembly too. I don’t have an embarrassing anecdote for it though.”

“Yeah but, get this Selm, I actually got my second burn the same day! By that time we already got the gloves thank god, because I would’ve screamed bloody murder if it weren’t for it. Oh, well, and my soulmate’s in our class, that’s also a thing. Still have no idea of who it might be though.”

Serim’s brain started working very fast for a second. So, Woobin had not only gotten his first burn at the exact same place and moment, which could perfectly be a coincidence, but they had also gotten their second burn at the exact moment and place? And a place where there were only about twenty people? Yeah, there’s no way this was a coincidence.

Well, Seo Woobin was his soulmate.

“Wow, that’s really weird, at least you have a reduced pool. They better take care of you when you meet them or they’ll have to deal with me.”

Serim just threatened himself, just great. He was gonna have a hard time hiding this.

* * *

Around their first year of high school, Woobin started developing feelings for Park Serim.

And oh boy, it was not fun knowing the person you liked wasn’t your soulmate. Sometimes Woobin wishes he could go back to being that innocent 10 year old that though soulmates were overrated just so he could pine for Serim calmly, instead of worrying about whatever the hell destiny chose for him.

Serim, meanwhile, was getting extremely frustrated at how oblivious Woobin was. Hell, there have been many times when he honestly contemplated just grabbing his face and kissing him so that he’d finally notice, but he decided against that.

It’s not like he doubted Woobin was his soulmate. Whenever they hung out, his counter would, without fail, go up, and he knew Woobin’s had to go up too, so how was he not noticing? So close yet so far, Serim held on the hope that his soulmate, his best friend, and hopefully his future boyfriend would notice sooner rather than later, but as the days went by, it didn’t seem like that was going to happen.

He wasn’t wrong when he thought this was gonna be a long ride.

* * *

“Well, haven’t you ever considered that Serim might be your soulmate?” Wonjin said one day during their second year of high school. “You’ve been pining for him for over a year, and if you ask an outsider, it seems the feeling is mutual. Besides, he meets the requirements, right? He was in our class during middle school, and didn’t you say he got his first burn on the same day you got yours?”

Honestly, those words completely changed Woobin’s perspective. Maybe Wonjin was right. Maybe those touches that lingered a bit more than they should and the warmth he felt on his chest when Serim smiled weren’t just his brain imagining things. From that day onward, Woobin stopped wearing his gloves unless it was completely necessary. 

Fuck pain relief, if his soulmate was truly Park Serim, he didn’t care about it.

* * *

“...and I am 100% sure, no, 110% sure he is my soulmate, but he just does not notice! I’ve literally had to restrain myself from just kissing his stupid smile away like 5 times this week alone! Isn’t he frustrating? Yeah, exactly, he is! You always know what I want to hear, Mr. Pig.”

Serim, 18 years old, venting his love problems to his pet plush pig because his friends were already tired of hearing the same subject like a thousand times. Hell, even Seongmin and Taeyoung got together before him and Woobin, it was honestly getting to a point when Serim didn’t know what he was doing wrong.

But, now that he thought about it, they were right. He was being a coward. It was just one kiss. A peck. It would take like 0.05 seconds. And in the case that he was wrong, which he honestly doubted, it would be a great story to add to Woobin’s list of embarrassing anecdotes, quite long for his short 17 years of age.

He took out his phone and texted Woobin. Now’s the time, he decided, it’s now or never.

Woobin was shocked when he suddenly received a text from Serim at 11PM on a Thursday night, especially since they had an exam that Monday. The shortness of the text was confusing too, just a simple ‘meet me @ the park in 10’. Still, curiosity got the best of him, and luckily for both him and Serim, his parents weren’t home that night, so he quickly changed and ran to the park.

When he arrived, a very disheveled Serim was waiting for him by the swings, a place where they always had their deep talks, ever since they met in middle school.

“Serim? Is something wrong?” He suddenly felt the burn, especially strong now that he wasn’t wearing his glove, and by the look on Serim’s face, he could tell he felt it too.

“Do I really need to say it? I think you’ve noticed too.” The older replied. “Well, took me a while to, but I guess I have.”

The two of them got closer, comfortable silence surrounding them. Serim was the one to break it. “You know, I’ve actually known for about a year now.”

“Funny, that’s how long I’ve been crushing on you.” Woobin answered.

“You what?!” Exclaimed Serim, a shocked look on his face.

“Why are you so shocked?! We’re supposed to be soulmates, I’d be more worried if I didn’t feel anything for you!” Retorted Woobin.

“But, what if we’re not? What if we’ve been wrong this whole time and we’re just two idiots who like each other but the universe said that we’re not meant to be together a-”

“Just shut up and kiss me, you overthinking idiot!” And Serim obliged.

When their lips finally met, everything felt right.

That is, until their palms burned for one last time.

“OW, WHAT THE FUCK?! I DIDN’T KNOW THIS WOULD HURT TOO?!” Woobin couldn’t help but scream as he hastily broke the kiss.

That’s when Serim knew there was no one he’d rather be with.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> Thank you for reading my first Cravity fic, I hope you enjoyed it! Honestly just wrote this because one, I'm a sucker for soulmate AUs and two, the Seriwoo tag needs some fluff in there because god it's angsty.
> 
> Once again thank you for reading!


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